I Don’t Even Bother Talking About Churning to My Friends

When I first got into the points and miles game, it was all I could think about. After redeeming miles for our first free flights to Italy, I was so excited I had trouble sleeping…the same feeling you would get when going to bed on Christmas Eve as a kid. So naturally I’d try to talk about it every chance I got, probably to the point where it was annoying. After planning our Italy trip, I couldn’t help but tell my friends that the whole thing was only costing us $300. Instead of questions like “how is that even possible?”, I was greeted by blank stares and a quick change in conversation.

It took me a while to realize that for people who don’t understand the basics of credit card churning, they either think 1) I’m bragging or 2) I’m playing with fire and my credit score is horrendous.

Number two is much easier to tackle since after a few Google searches, most people will see enough evidence to show the contrary. However, number one is what really bothers me and makes it so I don’t even bring it up anymore. The fact that I go on amazing trips for next to nothing is not something I bring up to brag. This information is available to everyone! I’m not doing anything special. The reason I mention it is because I want my friends and family to enjoy these trips like I get to.

It’s sad that our upcoming honeymoon is a source of contention with some people. When they hear where we are going, they assume we are paying a ton of money and get gloomy because they can’t afford to go on that kind of trip. Here’s the thing…neither can we! It’s all about planning ahead and making smart redemptions, not using actual money! We try to explain the booking process, but we start to see eyes glaze over and realize maybe this isn’t our audience…

I’ve come to realize that while credit card churning is available to all, not everyone is going to want to try it. Even though you can save thousands of dollars on travel, some people are not going to want to bother. That’s part of why I have this *secret* blog. I need somewhere to talk about it without sounding like a broken record!

What’s your experience with talking about points and miles and credit card churning to people who aren’t familiar with it?

3 thoughts on “I Don’t Even Bother Talking About Churning to My Friends”

I run into a lot of people who think churning is dishonest. It’s soooo hard for me not to go off the rails and be like, “Yeah, banks are the honest ones, they definitely have their consumers best interests at heart…. oh wait,”